7 ms·

This wouldn't happen with SFTP, CVS and a $5 VPS.

by Hitton 4y ago

hrdwdmrbl 4y ago
CVS = http://cvs.nongnu.org/ http://cvs.nongnu.org/ ?
jpalomaki 4y ago
Assuming the $5 VPS provider has proper backup and recovery procedures in place.
- prepend 4y ago
  For $5 they definitely should. Also assuming the sun doesn’t end in a sudden heat death event. Also assuming that my fingers aren’t removed in a thresher accident. And assuming the provider has electricity. Etc etc etc, it’s important to vet that services I pay for have SLAs and are competent.
  - padobson 4y ago
    >Also assuming that my fingers aren’t removed in a thresher accident. This wouldn't happen with a $5 pitchfork and a stone threshing floor
  - dekhn 4y ago
    you left out the meteor-data-center-strike problem. Most $5 VPS don't do realtime snapshotting to an out-of-region data center with live failover.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Many of the VPS providers have a backup option. My personal preference is to have a VM at a few different VPS providers and a cron job that uses lftp to do a rsync-like replication between VPS providers using SFTP. The advantage of lftp over rsync is that I can sync between accounts that are chroot sftp-only with nearly identical capabilities of rsync. The lftp client can also break up one file into multiple TCP streams. In the event a provider terminates my account I could not care less. The files will be at multiple providers and HAProxy will automatically remove them when the content validation health checks fail.
turtledove 4y ago
What you've described is not at all an equivalent for Dropbox. There are many, many features that your stack doesn't support.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Msw242 4y ago
  How valuable are those features after Dropbox deletes all of your data and deactivates your account?
  - shkkmo 4y ago
    Why can't your VPS provider do the same thing?
    - dingleberry420 4y ago
      They typically don't spy on their customers as much as a service like dropbox does. Before downvoting, ask yourself: When was the last time a VPS provider scanned the disk contents of their customers? And when was the last time they booted someone for using full disk encryption? Meanwhile, dropbox proudly proclaims how they scan the contents of their users' files.
      - filmgirlcw 4y ago
        Edit: you substantially changed your comment after complaining about downvotes. That’s not cool. Note that you edited it. VPS companies delete customer data for all kinds of reasons, just as arbitrarily as Dropbox. I’ve had VPSes at dozens and dozens of places over the years. I’ve seen them accidentally delete servers, purposefully disable stuff for what they claimed were hacked sites that weren’t actually hacked (so that’s scanning right there), I’ve seen them go out of business because the owner was 15 years old, I’ve seen them go out of business because they sold to Endurance or whoever, I’ve seen their data centers catch on fire — taking everyone’s data with it, I’ve seen them accidentally delete whole clusters. And I excuse it in most of those cases because it is a VPS I pay a pittance for and don’t run production on, but the risk is always there. Trusting your data to Dropbox or OneDrive makes a lot more logical sense, especially if you aren’t knowingly violating any of their rules. And yes, you can colocate. I’ve done that too. But I no longer have the energy to do that, especially if my box is in a data center I can’t physically access. I backup about 5 different places because I’m always afraid of someone fucking me over. But for Dropbox to do this, is truly terrible. Especially for an unlisted rule.
foxbarrington 4y ago
If anyone doesn’t get the reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- blamazon 4y ago
  It's worth also reading this and similar comments by dang on the topic for context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27068148 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27068148
curiousgal 4y ago
Legit thought this was a reference to the infamous Dropbox HN comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
nonrandomstring 4y ago
Why a $5 VPS? Why not a $25 VPS in a reputable rackshack that has at least triple off-site redundancy? You get what you pay for and the choice isn't only between free and scuzzy, and cheap and scuzzy.

This wouldn't happen with SFTP, CVS and a $5 VPS.

by Hitton 4y ago

This wouldn't happen with SFTP, CVS and a $5 VPS.

hrdwdmrbl 4y ago

CVS = http://cvs.nongnu.org/ http://cvs.nongnu.org/ ?

jpalomaki 4y ago

Assuming the $5 VPS provider has proper backup and recovery procedures in place.

prepend 4y ago
For $5 they definitely should. Also assuming the sun doesn’t end in a sudden heat death event. Also assuming that my fingers aren’t removed in a thresher accident. And assuming the provider has electricity. Etc etc etc, it’s important to vet that services I pay for have SLAs and are competent.
- padobson 4y ago
  >Also assuming that my fingers aren’t removed in a thresher accident. This wouldn't happen with a $5 pitchfork and a stone threshing floor
- dekhn 4y ago
  you left out the meteor-data-center-strike problem. Most $5 VPS don't do realtime snapshotting to an out-of-region data center with live failover.
LinuxBender 4y ago
Many of the VPS providers have a backup option. My personal preference is to have a VM at a few different VPS providers and a cron job that uses lftp to do a rsync-like replication between VPS providers using SFTP. The advantage of lftp over rsync is that I can sync between accounts that are chroot sftp-only with nearly identical capabilities of rsync. The lftp client can also break up one file into multiple TCP streams. In the event a provider terminates my account I could not care less. The files will be at multiple providers and HAProxy will automatically remove them when the content validation health checks fail.

turtledove 4y ago

What you've described is not at all an equivalent for Dropbox. There are many, many features that your stack doesn't support.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Msw242 4y ago
How valuable are those features after Dropbox deletes all of your data and deactivates your account?
- shkkmo 4y ago
  Why can't your VPS provider do the same thing?
  - dingleberry420 4y ago
    They typically don't spy on their customers as much as a service like dropbox does. Before downvoting, ask yourself: When was the last time a VPS provider scanned the disk contents of their customers? And when was the last time they booted someone for using full disk encryption? Meanwhile, dropbox proudly proclaims how they scan the contents of their users' files.
    - filmgirlcw 4y ago
      Edit: you substantially changed your comment after complaining about downvotes. That’s not cool. Note that you edited it. VPS companies delete customer data for all kinds of reasons, just as arbitrarily as Dropbox. I’ve had VPSes at dozens and dozens of places over the years. I’ve seen them accidentally delete servers, purposefully disable stuff for what they claimed were hacked sites that weren’t actually hacked (so that’s scanning right there), I’ve seen them go out of business because the owner was 15 years old, I’ve seen them go out of business because they sold to Endurance or whoever, I’ve seen their data centers catch on fire — taking everyone’s data with it, I’ve seen them accidentally delete whole clusters. And I excuse it in most of those cases because it is a VPS I pay a pittance for and don’t run production on, but the risk is always there. Trusting your data to Dropbox or OneDrive makes a lot more logical sense, especially if you aren’t knowingly violating any of their rules. And yes, you can colocate. I’ve done that too. But I no longer have the energy to do that, especially if my box is in a data center I can’t physically access. I backup about 5 different places because I’m always afraid of someone fucking me over. But for Dropbox to do this, is truly terrible. Especially for an unlisted rule.

foxbarrington 4y ago

If anyone doesn’t get the reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

blamazon 4y ago
It's worth also reading this and similar comments by dang on the topic for context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27068148 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27068148

curiousgal 4y ago

Legit thought this was a reference to the infamous Dropbox HN comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nonrandomstring 4y ago

Why a $5 VPS? Why not a $25 VPS in a reputable rackshack that has at least triple off-site redundancy? You get what you pay for and the choice isn't only between free and scuzzy, and cheap and scuzzy.